BNP Paribas Lowers Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) to Underperform

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) was downgraded by BNP Paribas from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report issued on Friday, Briefing.com reports. They currently have a $20.00 target price on the airline’s stock. BNP Paribas’ price objective points to a potential downside of 14.35% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on LUV. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $34.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. TD Cowen downgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $26.00 to $20.00 in a research report on Friday, October 27th. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $32.75 to $28.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 4th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $50.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 31st. Finally, Bank of America cut Southwest Airlines from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $45.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Southwest Airlines currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $32.06.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

Shares of Southwest Airlines stock opened at $23.35 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $13.92 billion, a PE ratio of 31.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.16. Southwest Airlines has a 12-month low of $21.91 and a 12-month high of $40.38. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $26.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $30.55.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 26th. The airline reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38. The business had revenue of $6.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.56 billion. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 5.08% and a net margin of 1.95%. Southwest Airlines’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.50 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Southwest Airlines will post 1.42 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of LUV. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 2.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,028,745 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $2,886,717,000 after buying an additional 1,213,767 shares during the period. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich grew its position in Southwest Airlines by 74,645.8% in the 2nd quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 29,236,805 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $1,058,665,000 after acquiring an additional 29,197,690 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Southwest Airlines by 39.7% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 21,991,802 shares of the airline’s stock worth $715,615,000 after purchasing an additional 6,244,136 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 18,213,320 shares of the airline’s stock worth $613,243,000 after purchasing an additional 1,269,782 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 91,675.0% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 15,296,139 shares of the airline’s stock worth $515,021,000 after purchasing an additional 15,279,472 shares during the last quarter. 78.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines Co operates as a passenger airline company that provide scheduled air transportation services in the United States and near-international markets. As of December 31, 2022, the company operated a total fleet of 770 Boeing 737 aircrafts; and served 121 destinations in 42 states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, as well as ten near-international countries, including Mexico, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Aruba, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Belize, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, and Turks and Caicos.